Swinney accused of ‘treading water’ over Government plans for the next year

First Minister John Swinney came under fire from opposition leaders and campaigners – despite promising what he insisted was a “programme for a better Scotland”.

With a year to go to the Holyrood election, the SNP leader came to Holyrood to announce his programme for government, promising 100,000 more GP appointments and the scrapping of peak-time rail fares “for good”.

But with similar commitments having already been made by Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister of having “nicked” the policies.

Mr Sarwar quipped: “It’s not exactly the borrowing powers I thought the SNP had in mind.”

On  the commitment to offer more GP appointments, Dr Iain Morrison, the chair of BMA Scotland’s GP committee said: “It is a drop in the ocean when you consider GP practices in Scotland deliver 650,000 appointments every week.”

Dr Morrison added, on the issue of access to GPs, the “rhetoric on this is failing to match the reality” from the Scottish Government.

He said: “There seems to be no difficulty in building up expectations that access to GPs will improve, but the solutions do not seem to be as easily forthcoming, which will leave GPs deeply frustrated.”

The comments came as campaigners at Oxfam Scotland accused the Scottish Government of “treading water while the storms of poverty, inequality and the climate crisis rage.”

Jamie Livingstone, head of the charity in Scotland, blasted: “This programme for government is too quiet on inequality, too soft on polluters and too slow on change.”

John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, was also critical.

Mr Swinney has repeatedly made clear his desire to end child poverty, and the programme for government set out that the Government would consult on and develop a new plan for tackling this.

Mr Swinney said this would outline the actions to be taken “to keep us on the journey to meet our poverty reduction targets for 2030” – when the number of children living in relative poverty should be reduced to 10% or less.

But Mr Dickie stated: “This programme for government lacks the scale and urgency needed to meet statutory targets never mind achieve the FM’s ambition to eradicate child poverty altogether.

“We will need to see a rapid ratcheting up of investment, including a substantive boost to the Scottish child payment in line with what independent experts say is needed if targets are to be met.”

Stephen Boyd, director of the IPPR Scotland think tank, said: “John Swinney identified the right strategic priorities but failed to provide sufficient substance on how rapid and significant progress on child poverty, the economy, climate change and public services would be delivered over the coming year.”

The comments came as Mr Swinney insisted he was putting a “renewed and stronger NHS” at the heart of his Government’s plans for the next 12 months.

Mr Swinney accepted the difficulty many face in getting GP appointments can cause “deep frustration” in what he said was “described as the 8am lottery”.

To tackle that, he promised “an extra 100,000 appointments in GP surgeries”, with the SNP leader going on to add these would be “focused on key risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking”.

Meanwhile, he said the move to scrap peak-time rail fares for good from September 2025 would form part of the “package of cost-of-living support” offered by the Scottish Government.

A pilot project had already seen peak-time rail fares in Scotland scrapped, leaving travellers paying the cheaper, off-peak prices regardless of when they travelled.

Mr Swinney said “severe budget pressures” meant this policy could not be continued, and it was ended less than a year ago in September 2024.

But, on Tuesday, he told MSPs: “Given the work we have done to get Scotland’s finances in a stronger position, and hearing also the calls from commuters, from climate activists and from the business community, I can confirm that, from September 1 this year, peak rail fares in Scotland will be scrapped for good.

His programme for government also promised more money for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project planned for the north east of Scotland.

While the Scottish Government has previously pledged £80 million for this, he said he would “remove that cap and increase the amount of Scottish funding that is available” – although this will only happen if the project is given the go ahead by the UK Government.

Overall he told MSPs at Holyrood that his plans amounted to a “programme for a better Scotland”.

The First Minister said: “Centred on delivery, providing hope, it is a programme that seeks what is best for Scotland, a programme for government that gets our nation on track for success.”

But Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said the SNP Government had already failed to keep its commitments to increase GP numbers – saying that on this issue “no one will believe” the First Minister.

The Tory said: “This flimsy programme for government is just more of the same from the SNP and will do little to restore public trust.

“John Swinney is the politician who has failed to deliver for the past 18 years, the politician who has wasted more public money than anyone else, the politician who is now desperately trying to clear up his own mess.

“John Swinney can’t possibly be the solution because he has caused the problems.”

Similarly, Mr Sarwar said: “After nearly two decades in power, if the SNP had any ideas they would have delivered them by now.

“The party and the man who created this mess can’t be the ones to fix it.”